The present invention relates to methods and devices, in a computer having a display screen, for storing, retrieving, and performing operations with objects that are portrayed on the display and/or stored in the computer.
Computer programs currently available for personal or commercial use have evolved in the last few decades in a Darwinian model. Early forms made the best possible use of the limited technical features of their epoch, primarily limited memory and slow processor speeds. As these technical limitations were overcome by engineering developments, the early forms of software applications were expanded in power and features, but it is significant that the early format was generally retained.
For example, word processing programs initially had rudimentary capacity for moving text portions or storing text portions for cut and paste, or copy and paste procedures. The clipboard concept was introduced to make use of limited memory to carry out these functions, and were limited to storing and processing one designated text portion. Current cut/copy and paste procedures have generally retained this limitation, and are able to copy only one file to a clipboard and thereafter paste it as many times as desired. A problem often arises in dealing with a text document of some length, e.g., 25 pages, when it becomes necessary to move words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs from one part of the document to determine if they work better in another part of the document. And one may wish to move multiple parts of multiple pages to multiple insert points on multiple pages. This is fairly common in word processing, but the current copy/paste approach is actually very inefficient for such tasks.
In fact, it is commonplace for computer users to make a “hard copy” (paper printout) of their document (such as the 25 page example) and then edit it with pen or pencil on paper. When it is necessary to reorganize and edit a long document, the hard copy edit seems for many to be the most intuitive way to explain to someone what type of reorganization is required. Thus the putative advantages of a computer word processing system are nullified, at least for this procedure.
To copy one section of text at a time and then scroll forward or backward in a text document and then paste that text to see if it works is tedious for many reasons: (1) one can only copy and paste one thing at a time (one word, one group of sentences), (2) in most systems one cannot copy one word of a sentence and then skip some words and then add to that “copy” some other words that are not contiguous—you must copy contiguous text, (3) you must copy contiguous sentences and paragraphs, 4) whatever is copied is always text—it cannot be changed to another form, such as a functional object.
Another common problem with word processing editing involves the ability to easily navigate from one page of text, graphics, video, pictures and another. One common method of accomplishing this process is to “drag” text, objects, pictures, video clips, etc. from one page in a file to another. The problem with this method is that the more text portions one must drag between pages or documents the longer it takes, because there is usually a “set” scrolling speed (onscreen) for “dragging” things. The other popular method for accomplishing this task is to cut and paste text, objects, graphics, video clips, etc.
The clipboard concept and the edit bin, both commonly used at the present time, do not provide easy visualization of that which has been stored. Often the clipboard may be accessed via a pull-down menu, so that it displays in a window the item being temporarily stored for subsequent use. In many programs, the user may inadvertently overwrite and lose a stored item by designating another item as a cut/copy selection. That is, only one item may be visualized, and visualization is only possible by commanding it through a pull-down selection.
An easier and more immediate way to navigate between multiple pages of a file or document is the use of Go To commands. Some programs do utilize Go To's, but they are cumbersome to use and involve finding the Go To function in a pull down menu and then activating it.
Looking at software systems from a broader perspective, it is generally difficult to transfer portions from the onscreen display of one program to another, particularly when the software operates in different realms, such as word processing, audio processing, graphics, image processing, video processing, and the like. The ability to integrate these diverse media seamlessly is a long-sought goal of software development, but the conceptualization of each media function as a separate entity creates obstacles to the objective of complete integration.